30 October 2013
Occupied Ramallah – Ofer Military Court ruled to shorten and not renew Addameer accountant Samer Arbeed’s administrative detention order. The court’s decision states that Samer will be released on 21 November 2013, without the possibility of a renewed order, unless the military prosecution can provide the court with concrete evidence that confirms Arbeed’s secret charges.
Administrative detention is a procedure that allows the Israeli military to hold prisoners indefinitely on secret information without charging them or allowing them to stand trial.
The judge’s decision came after Addameer’s lawyer Mahmoud Hassan argued the credibility of the secret file and information presented in court. Adv. Hassan added that Arbeed’s most recent detention only aimed to obstruct his work.
The IOF arrested Arbeed on the 23 September 2013 after raiding his house in Ramallah and confiscating some of the documents that belong to Arbeed. Arbeed was subjected to 25 days of interrogation at Moscobiyeh interrogation center, after which the Israeli intelligence (Shabak) issued a four-month administrative detention order against him.
This is the third administrative order to be issued against Samer Arbeed. He was previously detained from January 2003 to November 2006; spending 47 months in prison, and was detained a second time from March 2007 to August 2008; spending 17 months under administrative detention.
Arbeed, 38 years old, is married and has a 2 year old daughter.
Currently, there are 135 administrative detainees, 9 of them are Palestinian Legislative Council members.